Systems and methods for generating nitric oxide

Abstract

Systems and methods for generating nitric oxide are disclosed. A nitric oxide (NO) generation system includes at least one pair of electrodes configured to generate a product gas containing NO from a flow of a reactant gas; and a controller configured to regulate the amount of nitric oxide in the product gas produced by the at least one pair of electrodes by utilizing duty cycle values of plasma pulses selected from a plurality of discrete duty cycles to produce a target rate of NO production based on an average of discrete production rates associated with each of the plurality of discrete duty cycles.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A nitric oxide (NO) generation system comprising:
 at least one pair of electrodes configured to generate a product gas containing NO from a flow of a reactant gas; and 
 a controller configured to regulate the amount of nitric oxide in the product gas produced by the at least one pair of electrodes by varying current to the electrodes with respect to time during a plasma pulse associated with the electrodes, 
 the controller being configured to control a high voltage circuit to vary the current during a time period in which the plasma pulse is between a single pair of the at least one pair of electrodes such that the current is an initial current at a start of an electrical discharge and increases throughout the electrical discharge. 
 
     
     
       2. The NO generation system of  claim 1 , wherein the current variation is tied to a duty cycle of the plasma pulse. 
     
     
       3. The NO generation system of  claim 1 , wherein a longer duty cycle results in a higher current at the end of the duty cycle. 
     
     
       4. The NO generation system of  claim 1 , wherein a lower current is configured to be associated with a small gap between the electrodes to protect the electrodes from erosion in a small gap region. 
     
     
       5. The NO generation system of  claim 1 , wherein the current is configured to increase over time to increase production at a large electrode gap between the pairs of electrodes.